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B10
life
Guardian www.guardian.co.tt Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Most would agree that smiles are contagious.
But can there be a social benefit from a fake smile?
New research suggests that not all smiles are
created equal, that people respond differently to
smiles that are not genuine. In fact, differing
responses may reflect the unique social value of
genuine smiles.
"These findings give us the first clear suggestion
that the basic processes that guide responses to
reward also play a role in guiding social behaviour
on a moment-to-moment basis during interac-
tions," said psychological scientist and lead
researcher Dr Erin Heerey of Bangor University
(UK).
The new research is reported in the journal Psy-
chological Science.
"No two interactions are alike, yet people still
manage to smoothly coordinate their speech and
nonverbal behaviours with those of another person,"
Heerey said.
She wondered whether the intrinsic value of
different social cues like smiles may play a role in
shaping our response to those cues. Polite smiles,
for example, typically
occur when sociocul-
tural norms dictate that
smiling is appropriate.
Genuine smiles, on
the other hand, signify
pleasure, occur spon-
taneously and are indi-
cated by engagement
of specific muscles
around the eye.
If genuine smiles are
a form of social reward,
Heerey hypothesised,
people should be more
likely to anticipate gen-
uine smiles than rela-
tively less rewarding
polite smiles.
An observational
study showed that pairs of strangers getting to
know one another not only exchanged smiles, they
almost always matched the particular smile type,
whether genuine or polite.
However, the response to a partners genuine
smile was much more rapid, suggesting they were
anticipating the genuine smiles.
Similarly, participants in a lab-based study
learned key-press associations for genuinely smiling
faces faster than those for politely smiling faces.
Data from electrical sensors on participants faces
revealed that they engaged smile-related muscles
when they expected a genuine smile to appear but
showed no such activity when expecting polite
smiles.
Researchers believe the different responses sug-
gest that genuine smiles are more valuable social
rewards.
Previous investigation has shown that genuine
smiles promote positive social interactions, so
learning to anticipate them is likely to be a critical
social skill.
One of the novel aspects of the research, said
Heerey, is the combination of naturalistic obser-
vation and controlled experimentation, which
allowed her to explore the richness of real-life
social interactions while also affording her the
opportunity to investigate possible causal relation-
ships.
Heerey believes that this approach could yield
important applications over time.
"As we progress in our understanding of how
social interactions unfold, these findings may help
to guide the development of interventions for
people who find social interactions difficult, such
as those with social anxiety, autism, or schizo-
phrenia," she said. (Psych Central)
Fake smile
good for you?
Billy Crystal arrives
at the world
premiere of
Monsters
University at the
El Capitan Theatre
on Monday in
Los Angeles.
AP PHOTO
MONSTERS UNIVERSITY
"As we progress in
our understanding
of how social
interactions
unfold, these
findings may help
to guide the
development of
interventions for
people who find
social interactions
difficult, such as
those with social
anxiety, autism, or
schizophrenia."